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IT Gone Wild: How to be prepared for key IT employee departures

lhallen — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:13:00 GMT

By Lee Barken

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Amy had that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like most CFOs, Amy (names changed to protect privacy) had a keen sense for observing behavioral changes in her staff. When her Information Technology (IT) director started to display the telltale warning signs of workplace discontent, Amy knew that something was wrong. “At first it was just harmless complaining, but over time, it was clear that Bart was pretty unhappy,” says Amy. She adds, “When Bart abruptly resigned with just three days notice, I quickly realized how vulnerable our company was to the departure of an IT director. Bart had all the keys to the kingdom.”

By definition, key IT employees are entrusted with a high level of responsibility and authority. With administrative system rights, a trusted user can have access to read and/or modify any file on any system. This includes payroll information, e-mails, trade secrets and other sensitive information. If a key IT employee suddenly leaves the company, will you be prepared to pick up the pieces? Even worse, if the departure is hostile, how will you protect your company from malicious IT attacks?

As IT systems have become pervasive around the world, companies now find themselves more dependent upon technology. The byproduct of this dependence is a critical reliance upon the IT personnel who manage and maintain the infrastructure. This means that a disgruntled IT employee has the potential to cause harm far beyond that of a typical worker.

Revenge of the Nerds

The motivation for IT sabotage can come from a variety of sources. IT staff may feel under-appreciated, or underpaid, or perhaps just have a score to settle. In 2002, when Roger Duronio, a system administrator for UBS Wealth Management, learned that he would not be receiving an annual bonus, he set in motion an elaborate plan to get even.

After quitting his job, Duronio, waited three weeks, then using his knowledge of the network infrastructure, he injected a logic bomb that took down 2,000 servers. The attack affected 370 branch offices and left 17,000 brokers without system access. Getting the system back up and running cost the financial services firm over $3 million. Duronio was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

In 2007, Joseph Nolan, a system administrator for aviation firm Pentastar erased a hard drive containing company payroll and HR information following a disagreement over a severance package. Unlike simpler times where employee sabotage resulted in office pranks or starting rumors, today’s trusted IT employee can inflict lasting and permanent damage felt across the entire enterprise. Nolan received a four-year sentence.

Ethics in the Data Center

According to a survey by security website DarkReading.com, nearly one-third of respondents admitted to using system rights to peruse information they were not supposed to access at least once over their careers. In addition, ten percent revealed that they “abuse their security privileges on a regular basis.”

When presented with a hypothetical scenario asking what they would do if they found a list of employee names about to be laid off, 23 percent said they would sneak a peek. Even more disturbing, 8.5 percent indicated that they would not only peek, but they would also share this information with other people in the company.

Nobody wants to believe that their employees would succumb to unethical behavior. However, the reality is that CFOs have an obligation to be prepared and manage the risk of good employees gone bad. Effective corporate governance, like the Boy Scout motto, mandates that companies should “be prepared.” The first step is to develop a Termination Policy for High-Risk IT Employees.

What Could Go Wrong?

While most companies already have a formalized termination policy that governs employee departures, additional steps must be taken for high-risk IT employees. Beyond the typical procedures of returning of laptops, key cards and other company property, a few extra steps should be included:

1. Change all passwords. Upon departure, all passwords known by that employee must be changed, especially administrative and privileged accounts. In the event of a hostile termination, make sure that administrative passwords are documented and stored in a secure location. For example, seal administrative passwords in a tamper evident bag (used in evidence collection) in a locked safe. Secure password storage is essential not only for managing terminations, but also for effective disaster recovery. If key IT personnel are non-responsive in a natural disaster or crisis situation, having emergency use passwords available is an important part of any business continuity plan. This is especially important in smaller environments where administrative access may be limited to a single individual.

2. Update domain name registration records. Be sure that the terminated employee is removed from your domain name registration contacts. If this access is not removed, a malicious employee could change your Domain Name Servers (DNS) and cause your website and e-mail to be disabled or redirected. To check your domain name registration, simply enter your domain name (such as hwcpa.com) in a WHOIS search site, such as http://www.networksolutions.com/whois.

3. Secure wireless networks. Wireless networks present a unique risk because an attacker in the parking lot could potentially compromise a network and access resources as if they were plugged into an Ethernet jack inside an office. If your company uses WEP, WPA-PSK or any encryption method that relies upon static keys, you must be sure to change the keys. Even if the employee didn’t know the actual key, if it was configured on their laptop, it is possible to recover and decrypt the key from registry settings. Don’t forget to change the password protecting the access point’s management interface.

4. Update Vendor Relationships. Just as you would call a bank and remove somebody from a “signature card”, you must also contact all vendors and third party outsourcing partners to ensure that access has been removed for the terminated employee. This should include the company’s Internet Service Provider (ISP), website hosting provider, payroll provider, software vendors, maintenance providers and off-site storage providers (where your backup tapes are maintained). Does your company order office supplies, buy products or process shipments online? You should change passwords for any websites where a company credit card might be stored. In addition, don’t forget to review access lists if your company uses any Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, such as online backups, online meeting/collaboration services or CRM software.

5. Disable remote access. Make sure to disable any remote access accounts, VPNs or other tools that enable remote access. While rare in modern IT environments, you may also want to scan for unauthorized modems.

Minimizing the Risk

For Amy, the sudden departure of her IT director meant panic when servers crashed a few days later. Luckily, the former IT director agreed to come back and perform an emergency recovery. However, Amy knows that next time she might not be so lucky. “This time around, I’m having my new IT director write down everything. You know, just in case he wins the lottery and disappears next week,” she says with a smile.

Although it’s impossible to prevent every attack, CFOs are not powerless in the battle to reduce the risk posed by terminations of key IT employees. By developing and implementing policies and procedures for the termination of high-risk IT employees, companies can prevent last minute scrambling and improve the overall security posture of their IT environments.

About the Author

Lee Barken, CPA, CISSP, CISA, CCNA, MCP is the information technology practice leader at Haskell & White LLP (http://www.hwcpa.com/). Prior to Haskell & White, he worked as an IT consultant and network security specialist for Ernst & Young’s Information Technology Risk Management (ITRM) practice and KPMG’s Risk and Advisory Services (RAS) practice. Lee writes and speaks on the topics of clean tech, IT audit compliance, enterprise security, wireless LAN technology, and computer forensics. He is the author of How Secure Is Your Wireless Network? Safeguarding your Wi-Fi LAN (Prentice Hall, 2003), and Wireless Hacking: Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts (Syngress, 2004). You can reach him at 858-350-4215 or lbarken@hwcpa.com.

Software-Plus-Services & Microsoft Dynamics

Editor — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:33:00 GMT

By Derek Cahill, VP Pointivity

Microsoft Dynamics software-plus-services approach provides customers with the flexibility and choice in how they use, buy, deploy, and manage their business processes such as marketing, sales, finance, and operations. Microsoft Dynamics is a fast growing community built upon a strong partner and ISV (Independent Software Vendor) network.

Traditional Microsoft Dynamics Deployment
Traditionally customers purchase Microsoft Dynamics (AX, CRM, GP, NAV, SL, etc.) from certified Microsoft Partners. Microsoft partners will install, setup, and customize Microsoft Dynamics onsite with dedicated hardware and infrastructure. The most appropriate delivery model is dependent on the unique characteristics of each company and its industry. While the traditional deployment/licensing model might be attractive for some customers, it represents several problems for others, including large up-front capital expenditures for hardware and infrastructure (network, security, databases, backup, etc.), ongoing management of hardware and infrastructure (difficult for non-technical clients) and the full purchase of licenses that they may or may not use year over year. These expenditures are compounded with yearly software assurance agreements, hardware break/fix costs and unexpected licensing changes.

Microsoft Services License Agreement (SPLA)
Many customers and Microsoft Partners are not aware but Microsoft now offers Microsoft Dynamics (AX, CRM, GP, NAV, SL, etc.) on a hosted subscription model or Services Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA for short). SPLA enables service providers with a hosted offering to license Microsoft products on a monthly basis to provide hosted applications to their end customers. In fact Microsoft offers Exchange, SharePoint, Office, Dynamics, Performance Point and many other products on a hosted licensed model. With SPLA you inherit the hosted model and leverage the IT expertise of hosting companies.

Advantages of SPLA Licensing
SPLA licensing has many advantages over traditional purchase of Microsoft Dynamics applications including:

No Up-Front Capital Expenditures – Only pay for the hardware and software licenses you need. Pricing varies by partner, but a typical Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Essentials or Advanced Management module will be under $200 per user per month. Microsoft CRM is under $50 per user per month.
Pay As You Go – SPLA licensing allows you to add or subtract users as you go along, only pay for the Microsoft Dynamics licenses you need. You can even mix and match Exchange, Office, CRM and GP licenses to match your company needs.
Software Assurance Included – SPLA licensing includes all Microsoft Dynamics product updates year over year for the lifetime of the agreement. You’ll always have the latest product version under SPLA licensing.
Boost Employee Productivity – IT or department resources can focus on business operations and not on IT issues or application problems. Many companies often designate one or two internal resources as their main point of contact for all Microsoft Dynamics problems. These resources quickly lose productivity and focus from their core responsibilities.
Access Microsoft Dynamics over the Internet – Through SPLA licensing you inherit the ability for application hosting and can access Microsoft Dynamics applications over the Internet. This way your entire organization can work on Microsoft Dynamics and other Microsoft products while on the road, at home or from any office location.
Eliminate Hardware Issues – Hosting Microsoft Dynamics eliminates the need to have in-house experts on servers, infrastructure, security, networking, backup, etc. Most Microsoft partners and application hosting companies have staff with experts in each of these areas, plus 7/24 help desk, redundant Internet and power systems, high-end security systems and backup systems that your company may find difficult to afford.
Integration with 3rd Party Products – Many ISVs now support running their product on a hosted model with similar licensing terms to SPLA. Ask your ISV about a hosted solution instead of paying a large up-front licensing cost for their product.
Partners & ISVs – SPLA licensing is a win/win for customers, partners and ISVs. Partners and ISVs can focus more on customer services, minimize hardware and setup issues, and offer Microsoft Dynamics at a lower price point to their customers.
New Customers or Existing Customers – SPLA works great for new or existing customers especially customers who are upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics or new customers who do not have the capital or the technical resources to support an onsite Microsoft Dynamics installation.

SPLA Licensing – What To Watch Out For
SPLA licensing is a great solution for most companies, but beware of these pitfalls when working with a partner on a SPLA agreement.

Data Center / Hosting Facility – Make sure your Microsoft Dynamics partner works with a leading application hosting company and has the staff, resources and policies in place to support your needs.
Public Companies – Make sure your data is stored in a SAS 70 Type II compliant data center which meets all SOX compliance guidelines. Also, make sure your data can be backed up for 7 years which will be a requirement starting in 2009.
3rd Party Products / ISVs - Make sure your third party products or ISV products are licensed or work in a hosted environment.
Virtualization – Hosted Microsoft Dynamics is currently not supported in a virtualized model only on dedicated servers. Make sure your hosting company provides dedicated servers and equipment for both the application servers and SQL database servers otherwise Microsoft will not support your installation.
SPLA Licensing – Microsoft reserves the right to change SPLA licensing once a year. But as this market expands and the industry battles over market share for the software- as-a-service market, I anticipate SPLA licensing to go down. As an example, this year the SPLA licensing for Microsoft CRM went down by more than 50%.

The IT environment is quickly evolving. New terms such as virtualization, software-as-a-service, utility computing and cloud computing are evolving into solutions. Just as a company may outsource their payroll services, legal services or other business processes, companies are now turning to IT companies to outsource their basic IT services. There is no way a company can keep up with the changing IT market and all the specialties such as networking, security, hardware, software, operating systems, databases, backup, software applications and more. That is why companies can benefit from Microsoft’s Software Plus Services and licensing products via Microsoft’s SPLA licensing program. Using SPLA licensing, companies can eliminate up-front capital expenditures, pay for only the licenses they use, eliminate IT hardware issues, boost employee productivity and access Microsoft Dynamics products over the Internet.

Microsoft Dynamics & SPLA Licensing – Links and Notes
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/softwareplusservices.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/licensing/default.mspx

About the Author

Mr. Cahill has worked for both Fortune 200 and high-growth startup companies. Mr. Cahill was previously CIO of a public biotech company and founder of OnDemand Business Software, a company devoted to delivering Software as a Service (SaaS) to small and midsize companies. Currently, Mr. Cahill is Vice President of Pointivity, a leading application hosting and managed service company located in San Diego, California.

Part I: Securing your Data and Systems

Editor — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:09:00 GMT

By Thomas G. Stephens, Jr., CPA, CITP
Originally published in Accounting Network News

Information security remains a challenge for accountants in all walks of the profession. As accountants, most of the information we work with on a daily basis is sensitive and, as such, requires professional due diligence to protect that data. In fact, for the sixth consecutive year, information security was named as the technology initiative expected to have the greatest effect in the upcoming year, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ 2008 Top Technology Initiatives survey.

In Part I of this multi-part series, we will address several fundamental aspects of securing your data and systems – the importance of policies, effective passwords, and email security.

It Starts With Policies

Underpinning the concept of information security are policies that every organization should have in place to ensure that each team member fully understands his role and responsibility in securing the organization’s data. Examples of these policies include anti-virus policies, encryption policies, password policies, and remote access policies. An anti-virus policy, for example, should address issues such as the minimum required length of passwords used to access corporate networks, the complexity of such passwords, and the frequency with which passwords must be changed.

In the absence of clearly-communicated policies, team members don’t have the guidance necessary to effectively and consistently apply security settings across the organization. Fortunately, there are numerous resources for such policies so that these do not have to be created from scratch. The SANS Institute is one such resource. The SANS Security Policy Project is an excellent resource for the types of policies required to successfully secure organizational data; sample policy templates are accessible at http://www.sans.org/resources/policies/.

Passwords Are Key

With the fundamental policies in place, the next step in securing an organization’s data is to ensure that appropriate passwords are in place so as to limit unauthorized access to systems and the data on those systems. These passwords must possess certain characteristics in order to be considered “strong.” These characteristics typically include:

A minimum of eight characters, though 10 or more characters are preferred
At least two alpha characters (mixture of upper and lower-case), two numeric characters, and two special characters
Do not include a person’s name or word found in a dictionary
Changed at least every 90 days and not re-used

Because of the complex requirements outlined above for strong passwords, many users find complying with these requirements to be exceedingly difficult. As such, many new tools have appeared to assist users in managing complex passwords. Examples of such tools include software applications such as Password Depot and RoboForms. In addition, USB keys such as IronKey are becoming increasingly popular as mechanisms for managing passwords. Both the software applications and hardware devices tend to operate by encrypting stored passwords using high-grade encryption algorithms, allowing complex passwords to be saved and automatically recalled when logging into an application or website.

Protecting Email

One of the largest issues facing accountants from a security standpoint is that of email. By nature, email is a highly unsecured medium of communicating with others. Unless proactive measures are taken, email messages and their attachments can be viewed by prying eyes. Accordingly, accountants have a professional responsibility to ensure that confidential data are not inadvertently disclosed in unsecured emails. Key strategies for securing email and email attachments include:

Using Microsoft’s Information Rights Management (IRM) tool to control who can open an email message and what one can do with a message once it is opened. IRM is a component of Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007.
Encrypting with passwords any email attachments. For instance, if sending a Microsoft Excel 2007 workbook as an attachment, adding a password required to open the workbook encrypts the workbook with 128-bit encryption, making it almost impossible for a hacker to intercept the attachment.
Using a tool such as Hushmail to encrypt the entire email message. Hushmail provides private and secure email accounts. These accounts can be established at no charge at www.hushmail.com. Another tool to consider along these lines is PGP Enterprise (www.pgp.com).

Additionally, for those who are connected to Exchange Servers, using Remote Procedure Calls over an “https” connection ensures that email sent within an organization will remain secure within that organization’s domain. This is a configuration setting available to users of Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

While there are no absolute guarantees with respect to data and system security, a few practical steps can help to mitigate an organization’s risk of unauthorized access to critical data. The techniques discussed in this article – policies, passwords, and protecting email – are easy to implement and pay off with enhanced data and system security.

Next month, strategies such as whole-disc encryption, anonymous web browsing, and anti-virus and malware protection will be reviewed as a means of further securing critical information.

Mr. Stephens is a shareholder in K2 Enterprises, where he develops and presents technology-related continuing professional education programs to accounting and finance professionals across the United States. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com.

Excel 2007: Protect Sensitive Data In Your Documents

Editor — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:44:00 GMT

By David H. Ringstrom, CPA
Originally published in Accounting Network News

Your spreadsheets might contain more personal or confidential information than you realize. Such data often reside in the nooks and crannies of your spreadsheet, such as in the Properties window, or in overlooked hidden rows, columns, or worksheets. Fortunately the Document Inspector feature in Excel 2007 allows you to scan for and eradicate such information with just a few clicks of your mouse. I’ll show you how in this article, and will also discuss the Remove Hidden Data tool for Office XP and Office 2003 users.

Try it now: A free 60-day trial of Office 2007 is available for immediate download. Note that you can instruct the installation program to leave your present version of Office intact so that you’re free to work in either version. Or, try the online test drive.

Transition tools: Office Online offers an online command reference that shows where your favorite Excel 2003 commands reside in Excel 2007. You can also download and install the command reference tool on your computer. Yet another option is to add the Get Started tab to your Excel 2007 ribbon — this puts numerous training aids right at your fingertips.

Introducing the Document Inspector
This feature — also available in Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 — allows you to scan your documents for information that you might not want to share with others. It’s easy to get started:

1. Open the spreadsheet that you wish to scan.

2. Click the Office button, choose Prepare, and then Inspect Document.

Protected Worksheets: You cannot initiate the Document Inspector from a protected worksheet. If the Inspect Document choice is disabled, either activate an unprotected worksheet, or click Unprotect Worksheet in the Changes section of the Review tab of the ribbon.

3. You may be prompted to save your document, as shown in Figure 1. It’s always best to run the Document Inspector on a separate copy of your document, so that the original remains intact.

Figure 1: Be sure to save a copy of your original document, as certain changes by the Document Inspector cannot be undone.

4. As shown in Figure 2, the Document Inspector allows you to scan seven categories of content. You can clear the checkboxes for any categories that you wish to omit. When you’re ready, click Inspect.

Figure 2: You can choose which areas of your spreadsheet to inspect.

5. After the inspection you’ll see results for each category, as shown in Figure 3. At this point you have a couple of options:

Figure 3: The Document Inspector provides summary level inspection results.

• Click the Remove All button for any category. The Document Inspector only alerts you to the presence of personal or possibly confidential data, so you may wish to close the Document Inspector and determine what will be removed.
• Click the Reinspect button to repeat the document inspection, perhaps after using the Remove All button(s) to eliminate personal or confidential data.
• Click the Close button to dismiss the Document Inspector window.

Understand the Categories
The Excel 2007 Document Inspector searches for the following types of information:

Comments and annotations – You’ll usually know that a spreadsheet contains comments — such cells have a little red arrow in the upper-right-hand corner. However, it’s possible to obscure comments by hiding the indicator:
1.      Click the Office button, and then choose Excel Options.
2.      Choose Advanced, and then scroll down to the Display section.
3.      Choose No Comments for the “For Cells with Comments, Show” option.

Change Annotations: The Document Inspector also includes comments automatically added by the Track Changes feature within Excel.

Document properties and personal information: Certain authorship properties are set automatically when you create new documents:
1. Click the Office button, and then choose Prepare, and then Properties.
2. As shown in Figure 4, your name may appear in the Author field. It’s easy enough to clear this field and think that your work is done — but it isn’t.

Figure 4: The initial Properties window shows your name, but not other potential personal data.
3. Click the Document Properties button —just above the Author field — and choose Advanced Properties.
4. Click the Summary tab, and erase your company name if it appears within this window, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: The Properties dialog box provides access to all document properties fields.

Custom XML data: Advanced users can store additional document properties in custom XML data that is not readily visible, but can be retrieved by others.
Headers and footers: Headers and footers within a worksheet may contain seemingly benign information, such as your name or your company name.
Hidden rows and columns: The Document Inspector alerts you to the presence of hidden rows and columns. You can click the Remove All button to delete the hidden rows or columns, but doing so may compromise the integrity of your spreadsheet. It’s typically best to remove hidden rows or columns by hand.
Hidden worksheets: You can hide worksheets within your workbook by choosing the Format command within the Cells section of the Home tab. Under Format choose Hide & Unhide, and then either Hide Sheet or Unhide Sheet. As with hidden rows or columns, it’s usually best to remove these manually, although the Document Inspector can do so with just the click of a mouse.
Invisible content: Any object that floats above the worksheet, such as charts, shapes, clip art, macro buttons, etc. can be hidden. Even if you’re the person that hides the objects, you might later forget about the hidden content. To demonstrate, I’ll show you how to add an object, and then how to toggle its visibility property:
1.      Choose Shapes in the Illustrations section of the Insert tab within the ribbon.
2.      Choose the first rectangle shape, and then draw a rectangle on your worksheet — simply hold down your left mouse button, draw the rectangle, and then release your mouse.
3.      Once you add the rectangle, the Drawing Tools Format tab should appear automatically in the ribbon. Choose Selection Pane from the Arrange tab.

Alternative: You also access the Selection Pane by choosing Find & Select within the Editing section of the Home tab. Choose Selection Pane from the resulting drop-down menu.

4. The Selection and Visibility pane shows you a list of all shapes on the current worksheet. You can use the Show All and Hide All buttons at the bottom of the pane to control visibility of all shapes at once, or click the box that appears to the right of each object. For instance, in Figure 6 Rectangle 5 is hidden, so the box is empty. However, Chart 2 is visible, so the box contains an eye. This allows you to hide or unhide objects as you wish.

Figure 6: The Selection & Visibility pane allows you to hide or unhide objects.

Handle With Care
Although it’s a helpful tool, keep in mind that the Document Inspector only alerts you to the presence of personal or sensitive data. In some cases you could damage your spreadsheet by allowing the Document Inspector to remove columns, rows, or worksheets. Further, the Document Inspector can’t notify you of every possible data breach — only a careful review by a human can offer that assurance. For instance, the Document Inspector won’t notify you of these instances:

One object, such as a chart or text box, obscured by another object floating above it.
Cells formatted as hidden.
Cells with a font color set the same as the worksheet background. For instance, users sometimes set the font color of certain cells to white to obscure certain areas of a spreadsheet.

Customizable: You can create custom modules that allow the Document Inspector to identify other types of sensitive data within your spreadsheets.

Protect Office XP/2003 Documents
Office XP and Office 2003 users can install the free Remove Hidden Data tool to remove personal data from their documents. The tool isn’t as robust as the Document Inspector — you can’t set any options — but it does provide a log file of the types of data that was removed. Once you download and install the tool, a new Remove Hidden Data command will appear on the File menu in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Microsoft.

Is Reaching for the Moon Possible Anymore?

lhallen — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:10:00 GMT

Developing a High Performing Workforce of the Future
By Pam McGee

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Remember when it was revolutionary to wear jeans to work? Remember when it was innovative to have a flexible work schedule so you could go to your son’s baseball games? Remember when it was extremely left-wing when employees were put in charge of their own schedules? Remember when it was completely irrational to have an employee work from home? Remember when it was almost impossible to allow employees to see company financial information because it was normally only shared with top management? Remember when it was a big thing to have a virtual team? Those are questions that shaped yesterday’s workforce. To remain competitive, there is a new set of questions to answer.

The questions of tomorrow are partially influenced by the fact that for the first time in 100 years, there are four generations in the workforce. With an aging population leaving a gap in leadership, succession planning is epidemic in nature. There is more software driving decisions, connecting people, and changing the way work is done. The latest estimate is that there is 10 times the software in the workforce than even two years ago. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) has become a common social networking expectation for some. There is an ever present drive to go global for everyone, not just the big corporations. Individuals can go global because of the flattening of the world. The growing new American population needs to find work and have their skill set developed. There are more women in the workforce than men. So as the complexity continues to build, how does a business owner create a workforce that is inspired, engaged, and highly productive? Is it even possible? Can you reach for the moon on this one?

Companies everywhere are adjusting to the new work environment. For example, the city of New York has developed a generations training program to help create awareness among it employees on the differences and similarities of fellow employees in the workforce. One company invited employees’ parents to its new employee orientation. The reason was that the 18 to 24-year-olds have a larger dependence on their parents than preceding generations. This generation also lives at home longer, so there may be another incentive for parents to be ultra involved in their job search. Another company utilized Facebook as its primary means of connecting virtual employees. The added benefit is that they had access to non-employees listed on individuals’ Facebook sites. Their pool of knowledge just expanded without the burden of payroll.

In addition to these examples, here are a few suggestions that business owners can consider as they pave the way for their future to engage and inspire their workforce:

Appreciate Similarities and Differences With the Four Generations
Recent research by The Robertson Company and pMcGee & Co. found that all generations predominately shared the same top five desires for their workplace; however, they had a different order of priority. Appreciating each other requires a paradigm shift and expectation that not everyone should work the way we do. “Shoulding” others should stop in the workplace.

Create a Respectful Work Environment
From the same research, the number one workforce expectation was to be respected. Focus groups were conducted to dig deeper into what “being respected” meant. Believing that most people don’t intentionally go to work with the motive of being disrespectful, the research indicated that disrespect came from having a double standard, having prejudices against each other, not respecting and valuing opinions from all age groups, and requiring people too great a workload. An example of having a double standard was when a manager told younger new employees that they had to earn respect, but then didn’t send the same message to older new employees. An example of prejudices is best seen when viewing popular media about the younger generation. They have them plagued as the “lazy” generation. They appear to be all pierced and “Ipod’d.” It is also a deep-seated prejudice that the “older” generation is non-technical. They are seen in pictures with their clipboards, outdated cell phones, and leather-bound date planners. Neither situation is entirely true. Prejudices run deep and wide. The most exasperated layer of disrespect is creating a work environment where everyone continually does “more with less.”

Redefine Team
Another key aspect of the workforce research was that different generations have different perceptions about team. The baby boomer era used teams as their social network. They invented the company softball team; they enjoyed company retreats. The majority of their social life came from their work life. The younger generation defines teams by the projects they work on. They connect with many teams based on their situation. One individual, when asked what she thought of her team, replied, “Which one? I am on 21 different teams.” They want teams to be a tool to get work done more quickly so they can move on to their next thing. Teams and team building need to take on a different focus and dimension.

Rethink Work Schedule
One of the most challenging aspects in the workforce is there are two huge groups of employees demanding a less than traditional schedule. This is beyond flexible scheduling – that was an assumption similar to an employee having a phone and a computer. The scheduling challenge is figuring out a more results-based culture that focused less on who was where, when and how much office time, client time, or E-mail time an employee had. For example, there may be an opportunity to tap into the almost retired work group. They may demand a work schedule that is “six months on and six months off.” A business owner may be saying, “That will never work with my business.” Remember, there were also some preliminary predictions that virtual teams would never work.

Engage and Inspire
There was a constant expectation from all ages to be included, engaged, and inspired. There was some unconventional thinking that businesses need to reverse. The thinking went like this – “when times are tough, companies dump employees (aka layoff, downsize).” In reverse thinking, employees have adopted that same thought pattern – “when times are tough, I dump you.” Creating an engaging and inspiring work environment does not have to be difficult, lofty, or programmatic. It’s about the little things a company does. Do they trust their employees or run them through the policy mill? Do they include them in discussions about the big picture of the company? Do they give them the tools to win in their job? Do they support them when they fail? Do they encourage personal fulfillment even if it doesn’t directly relate to the job?

Conduct Company Surveys
Staying on top of the workforce climate takes diligence, open mindedness, and follow through. Most companies wouldn’t dream of NOT surveying their customers. The same philosophy holds true about surveying your employees. There may be a belief that you have an open door policy and your employees talk to you. That is wonderful in the anecdotal sense. But there is some greater level of learning that occurs when a company routinely assesses their employees for what is working and what is not. The systemic approach allows the business to notice trends and patterns. It also creates a more objective approach to solving company problems. It certainly avoids the “squeaky wheel” syndrome.

Although the way has yet to be fully paved, there are a number of things you can do today to enhance your company’s ability to attract and retain the best employees. We are overworked, underfed, and “on” 24/7. Yet done correctly, you can expect more, maximize productivity, and improve loyalty in your workplace across all generations.

About the Author

Pam McGee has been speaking publicly and consulting for over 15 years. She has delivered speeches, executive coaching and business consulting in over 22 countries for companies ranging in size from 10 people to 100's. Through her engaging and authentic discussions, she challenges her audiences to new thought processes, business trends, and people impact opportunities. Pam is a Business Consultant and principle of McGee & Co. that helps businesses with strategic planning, change management, leadership development and creating innovative environments. Pam is a member of the faculty at Minnesota State University - Moorhead where she teaches project management and leadership skills. Prior to forming her consulting firm, she worked for Microsoft in leadership development roles, business management roles, and organizational consulting roles. In her eight years at Microsoft, she was consistently praised for her ability to coach senior managers on a variety of business topics ranging from business and industry trends to personal leadership. Through these challenging times, Pam's main goal was always to keep these leaders working toward being great leaders and strategic thinkers. Most recently, she worked with the Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Marketing in the role of Business Manager. This role involved working side-by-side to manage the business management processes, global marketing activities, and all forms of communication for the Vice President. Prior to Pam's time at Microsoft, she assisted in the operation of - a trucking firm and a restaurant venture - as well worked for a Fortune 100 company as a sales manager. Pam has also been an Assistant Professor for the North Dakota University System. She lives in Fargo, ND with her husband, Scott and their two children, Isaac and Erika. Pam Mcgee Leadership Consultant

Plain Language in Business

Jenn Hass — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:51:00 GMT

By Roy Jacobsen

I’ve always believed the maxim “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” But now I find myself telling you that there’s something simple you can do that will boost your bottom line. One fundamental, uncomplicated thing that will:

Streamline procedures and paperwork
Improve employee productivity and moral
Reduce training time
Boost customer satisfaction
Increase sales and improve your company’s position in the marketplace

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What is “it?”

“It” is using plain language. Plain language is a set of practices based on the idea that the audience—customers, business partners, or employees—should be able to understand a document the first time they read it. Think about all the documents your business produces: customer letters, employee manuals, financial disclosure documents, legal contracts and notices, or anything else, printed or electronic. All of them can be improved by following plain language guidelines.

The evidence is overwhelming: plain language can have a huge positive impact on business. Studies in businesses and government agencies have shown that plain language saves time and money, and it improves understanding. And most importantly, almost everybody prefers plain language.

Watch your Language!

Just think about the business communications you read or hear every day. This includes E-mail, presentations, whitepapers, reports, proposals, contracts, billing statements, license agreements—the list is endless. Was the message immediately clear? Or did you have to review it a few times, wading through the jargon, business-speak, and legalese, to figure out what they were trying to say? Did it have a warm, human, conversational tone? Or did it come across as something composed by the computer HAL 9000, from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey?

“Jargon, wordiness, and evasiveness are the active ingredients of modern business-speak,” according to the authors of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots. This is troubling because our ability to conduct business depends on our ability to communicate. Unclear, ineffective communication is to business what square wheels are to NASCAR.

Most people don’t use murky language deliberately. We usually fall into it because that’s what we see modeled all around us. “Everyone writes this way, so this must be how it’s done.”

Just because “everyone does it that way” doesn’t mean that you have to.

Benefits of Plain Language

Okay, plain language sounds good on the surface, but is it really that much better? Isn’t there a good reason for the traditional language of business? Well, there are many reasons why the traditional way of writing is the tradition. But “it works better” is not one of them. Researchers have recently started comparing plain language to traditional language, and in every case, plain language comes out the clear winner.

Many of the studies of the benefits of plain language examine it in one of two ways: the benefits to the company, or benefits to the reader. Let’s look at a few examples of each.

Both the United States Army and Navy have studied the effect of writing business memos in plain language, and both found that plain language is better. The Army found that people who receive memos written in plain language are twice as likely to comply with the memo on the day they receive it. The Navy found that plain language memos take 17% to 23% less time to read, with significantly greater comprehension. “Time is money” is a fundamental business axiom, and the Navy estimated that, if all memos were written in plain language, their yearly cost savings (in time saved) would range from $250 to $350 million.

The “Time = Money” equation shows up in other areas as well. In the early 90s, Federal Express (now known as FedEx) revised its operations manuals using plain language guidelines after finding that readers who used the old manuals took an average of five minutes to find information, and they found the correct information only 53% of the time. With the new manuals, the average search time was 3.6 minutes, with an 80% success rate. They estimated that this effort was worth $400,000 annually in time saved. And that doesn’t take into account the savings from employees getting the right answers the first time.

Here are more examples of plain language having a direct impact on a company’s bottom line:

In 1991, the Allan-Bradley Company (now a division of Rockwell Automation), rewrote their computer manuals in plain language. This reduced calls to their call center from more than 50 a day to less than two a month.
British Telecom revised their billing statements in 1997 and found that it reduced customer calls about phone bills by 25%. Furthermore, customers paid more promptly, improving cash flow and reducing collection costs.

Other studies have found similar savings, along with reduced error rates on business forms, improved retention for staff training, reduced paperwork, and increased efficiency. All of these will boost profit margins.

What about the audience? What benefits do they receive?

Some of the studies I already cited showed improved comprehension; the readers got the intended message the first time around. The Navy study, for example, found that readers understood the plain language memos better than those written in traditional “bureaucratic” language. Other studies have found this as well. For example, the Veterans Administration tested some of their form letters. Only 44% of the veterans who received the traditional versions understood them. When they rewrote them in plain language, that number rose to 89%. In addition, the average reading time went from eight minutes to six.

Researchers who have studied this have found that readers overwhelmingly prefer plain language. When the Ford Motor Company tested a plain language version of the owner’s manual for the Taurus, 85% of the respondents preferred it to the other version.

The preference for plain language carries over into specialized documents, such as financial disclosure documents and legal documents. For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tested a plain language “profile prospectus” against the traditional model. Experienced investors overwhelmingly preferred the plain language version.

Joseph Kimble, a professor of legal writing at Thomas Cooley Law School in Michigan, and the author of Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language, has found that judges and attorneys prefer plain language to traditional “legalese.” Kimble points out legal language infiltrates business documents, such as contracts, licensing agreements, billing statements, and so on, even though it really isn’t necessary. “You can bet that many of those are influenced by the legal department, who won’t let this stuff get out to the public unless it’s written in legalese. And it just doesn’t have to be.” Plain language does the job more effectively.

Plain language doesn’t just help your company and your audience. It can help you in several ways as well.

First, trying to write clearly helps you think more clearly. Brian Fugere, one of the authors of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, and a partner at Deloitte Consulting, says, “Clear language forces you to think harder about what you’re saying. A lot of what we see is the result of people not really getting clear in their own heads what they’re trying to say.” (I have found this to be true for my own writing. If my words are murky, it’s usually because I’m not sure exactly what I’m trying to say.)

It also gives you a wider audience. Fugere says, “If you start experimenting with clear language, you find that people pay attention.” He cited his own experiences as a consultant. The studies I already mentioned support that contention. People are more likely to read, and understand, messages delivered in plain language.

Studies have also shown that people who use plain language are viewed more positively. Most people think “straight talkers” are more likable, friendly, energetic, inspiring, and enthusiastic.

And the most important benefit comes back to the bottom line: People are more likely to take action when you use plain language. Plain language gets results.

Plain Language Principles

Plain language isn’t a set of rules or a list of words to use or not use. It’s a set of principles for writing to convey our ideas clearly, accurately, and economically.

Start with your readers’ needs in mind. Tell them what they need to know, using the words they use, but don’t bog them down in extraneous details.
Use familiar words—ones that are simple, direct, and human. Call a shovel a shovel, not a human-powered excavation implement. This doesn’t mean you can’t use specialized language or jargon. If there is a clear and well-known term that best expresses your idea, and your audience knows that term, then go ahead and use it.
Express actions with verbs; don’t convert them into abstract nouns. Don’t utilize things, and for pity’s sake, don’t write about their utilization; use them. William Zinsser, in On Writing Well, advises us to “…remember that readers identify with people, not with abstractions like ‘profitability’ or with Latinate nouns like ‘utilization’ and ‘implementation,’ or with inert constructions in which nobody can be visualized doing something: ‘pre-feasibility studies are in the paperwork stage.’”
Use active voice more. Write sentences that describe actors performing actions (rather than states of being). “A foolproof method for roadrunners to be captured by hungry coyotes has been developed by Acme researchers” is passive. “Acme researchers have developed a foolproof method for hungry coyotes to capture roadrunners” is active.
Relentlessly cut unnecessary words. At this point in time is just a long-winded way of saying now or currently, and there are hundreds of other bits of baggage cluttering business communication. Not only do they waste your audience’s time, they sap your message of its power. It took only 270 words to deliver one of the most powerful speeches in American history: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Don’t be afraid to use personal pronouns. Address your reader as “you,” especially if you’re writing instructions. A sentence like “The completed form must be submitted before the application can be processed” doesn’t say who is supposed to do what. “You must complete the form and submit it to us before we can process your application” is clear and direct.
Simplify. Break long, complex sentences into shorter, simpler ones. Aim for more short paragraphs than long ones. This doesn’t mean that you have to write in a “See *** run” style. It means you should be sure you’re not trying to cram too many ideas into a single sentence or paragraph.
Give your document a logical structure, and make that structure visible. Divide things into short sections, with lots of headings (and subheadings, if necessary). Put an executive summary, purpose statement, or table of contents at the beginning. People will often skim a document for its key points before reading it, so make them stand out.

These ideas will get you off to a good start. There are also tools that can help. For example, if you struggle with business buzzwords, you can install Bullfighter, a free tool for Microsoft® Office Word 2003 and PowerPoint® 2003. It scans your document for offending words and offers plain language alternatives. It also calculates a readability score for your document, using the method invented by the late Dr. Rudolph Flesch, a pioneer in readability research. You can download Bullfighter from www.fightthebull.com.

(Full disclosure time: I scanned an early draft of this article with Bullfighter. My document’s “Bull Index” was 98—not quite bull-free because I had one instance of utilize—with a Flesch Readability score of 52. Bullfighter said that my writing is “mostly clear, with some unnecessarily long words and sentences. You get to the point, although with an occasional detour. Most educated readers will navigate the text with no difficulty. Longer words and sentences appear occasionally.”)

Plain language doesn’t have the cachet of the latest business fad being promoted by someone trying to push his book up the business bestseller list. But it does have reams of evidence that prove its worth to your company, your customers, and to you. And it doesn’t take an army of high-priced consultants to apply to your business, either. All it takes is the will to spend some time and effort, and the willingness to learn how to use words well.

About the Author

Roy Jacobsen is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years experience in a variety of fields, including a 13 year career with Microsoft Business Solutions. He’s also a contributing editor for The Editorial Eye, a resource for writers, editors, designers, project managers, communications specialists, “and everyone else who cares about contemporary publishing practices.” Roy’s weblog, Writing, Clear and Simple, is at http://rmjacobsen.squarespace.com/.

War and Peace: The Business of Business Partnerships

Editor — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:40:00 GMT

By Bonnie Robertson

Shocked, confused. A premier client of five years cancels a contract worth $450,000. A call to the client, and the response is “we didn’t cancel it; we just signed it under your new company.” But I don’t have a new company…what are they referring to? A rapid review of the financials reveals a near $100,000 in cash drain for expenditures that do not make sense and were not planned for. What is happening? I already know the answer but don’t want to face it. My business partner of six years, whom I trusted explicitly, built a dream with, solved problems with, even shared clothes between our kids with, had done the unthinkable.

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A business partnership gone bad is professionally, emotionally, and financially a devastating challenge from which to recover. But I was fortunate, the need for a partnership split was clear, and our partnership documents gave me clear direction and legal capability to do what needed to be done. The decisions were evident, although still devastating.

More than a decade later, writing these words still leaves a knot in my stomach. But I am not alone. Statistics show that business partnerships amongst entrepreneurs have a fallout rate higher than marriages in this country. It is estimated that two out of three of all business partnerships break up within the first five years. The risk is enormous. The recovery is costly.

But this is not to discourage all business partnerships, for there are positive stories in that one third that makes it. Bob and Ray have been business partners for more than 30 years. They have had some ventures that turned out better than others. They have had issues to resolve between them. They live in different cities, making communication around business decisions more of a challenge. All in all, it has been financially, mentally, and emotionally a rewarding experience with great returns. What is different? Why is it that so many entrepreneurial partnerships fail while so few live up to their vision and promise? These are questions I have been asking of entrepreneurs for years, and while human relationships are complex and are rarely understood in simple terms, there are some basics that can increase the probability of success and mitigate the risk of failure.

Why Take on a Business Partner?
The first question every entrepreneur needs to ask themselves is “why do I want to take on a business partner?” There are only two right answers: 1. Competency and/ or 2. Capital.

Competency
When your business vision requires expertise, knowledge, and skill to fulfill, sharing the burden with someone who has these capabilities can expedite growth and improve chances for success. It is important that someone with the competency to fulfill the work also has both the competency to help run the business and the stomach for the risk. If that’s not the case, it would be better to fire someone and take the risk yourself. Firing someone, although not easy, is far less painful than dissolving a partnership.

Capital
Building businesses requires money for start-up, expansion, and rides through the rough times. If there is a potential partner who would like to invest in the business for the opportunity for a return, it can be an effective way to generate capital. Be clear however, on what that return is expected to be and when. Often times the optimism of visionary entrepreneurs can distort the reality of cash needs. Plan together carefully and conservatively. If the return comes faster than anticipated, that will be a fun problem to solve.

Companionship
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs choose to take on a partner because of a need for companionship. It gets lonely chasing a vision. Your family and friends get tired of hearing about it; no one else quite understands the possibilities and opportunities. Creative entrepreneurs find themselves in a search for someone who understands, who can be as impassioned about their dream as they are. They long for someone to share the excitement. But companionship without competency and capital can be risky business. While companionship is essential for friends, families, and marriages, if a business partnership is based only on companionship and does not have strong doses of capital and/or competency to support and sustain the relationship, it can be costly to both partners and the business.

Other considerations for building and maintaining a healthy partnership:

Shared Values
This is a tricky one. Often times the thrill of a new business will cause people to sell themselves on their values, and it may take time to determine the real deal. Values are not expressed by words but by actions. Observing a potential partner in situations other than your immediate business can give you some clues. How does your potential partner interact with others? Do they communicate openly and with respect? How do they handle crisis or conflict? Do they display integrity and honesty? Do they view the world realistically and manage their lives the same way?

Financial Transparency
Having facilitated and mediated business partnerships, it always strikes me how little business partners understand about each others’ personal financial conditions. Changing financial conditions can derail a good partnership, as one party finds themselves in an increasing need for more cash. If your partner or potential partner has difficulty managing their personal finances, it is highly unlikely he/she will have the capability to manage the changing financial condition of a business. It is important to have open dialogues with a partner regarding financial expectations of the business. How long can you maintain without taking home money? What backup plan do you and your partner have for personally getting through the lean times?

Exit Plans
Many entrepreneurial partners spend countless hours discussing how to build the business and expansion strategies. Far too little time is spent discussing how and when the owners would like to exit the business. The excitement and stress of day-to-day business keep entrepreneurs focused on the here and now. Consideration and time for dialogues and planning about the future for both partners and the business is crucial to a happy ending for all involved. How long do you and your partner intend to stay in this business? Is there a triggering point by age, lifestyle or financial gain at which one or the other of you will be ready to exit the business? Will you sell the business? If so, to whom?

Emergency Response Plans
In the adrenalin producing days of business, it is hard to imagine a crisis occurring, but responsible business owners have a clear emergency response plan. What happens in the case of fire or natural disaster? Do you carry business continuation insurance? What if one of you as owners has a health issue that would keep you from working? Buy and sell agreements between owners should clarify what triggers a sale to the other partners in the event of health issues or even death.

Management Contracts
Partners working in the business should have clearly defined roles and expectations, and it should be documented. Who gets to make what decisions, especially about money and people, is crucial between partners. Clear expectations for what a working partner is to deliver for the business, as well as actions that constitute dismissal or force a sale in a partnership are critical for helping keep a bad situation from getting worse. My own example of a partnership gone badly was remedied quickly because of such a document that had been signed by both of us and witnessed. Most business partners don’t want to discuss these situations with each other, but agreeing to what is expected from each other not only helps to mitigate the risk, but it also can build a foundation for greater trust.

Open Communication and Planning are Key
It is not my intention to discourage good business partnerships. However, understanding the risks and openly discussing how you will deal with such risks could increase the probability for a successful and profitable business partnership. Preparation and open dialogue on these topics can help increase the odds and the good fortune to be one out of the three business partnerships that works effectively.

About the Author

Bonnie Robertson has more than 18 years of experience in management and business consulting, during which she has worked with organizations of various sizes and industry focus to assist with management, leadership and organizational strategy and development, change management and integrations. Prior to founding The Robertson Company, she was the Director of Strategic Partner Relations for Microsoft Business Solutions. Prior to the acquisition of Great Plains Software Inc. by Microsoft, Bonnie served Great Plains as a strategic business consultant to channel partners as well as being a member of the management team in charge of organizational and leadership development. During her leadership as Vice President of Organizational and Leadership Development, Great Plains won multiple Best Practices Awards sponsored by Arthur Andersen including Exceeding Customer Expectations, Motivating and Retaining Employees and Strategic Leadership as well as being repeatedly named one of the best workplaces in the United States, appearing on FORTUNE magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. In 2004, Bonnie founded the Robertson Company for the purpose of research and further development of entrepreneurs and their business success.

I Ain’t Got Nobody; Nobody Cares for Me—It’s Lonely at the Top

Editor — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:03:00 GMT

By Pam McGee

You’re sitting behind your desk, and it’s 6:00pm. You’re thinking about your day. What really happened today? One day blurs into another. You say to yourself:

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I do like my job. I’ve had many conversations with many different people today. I even helped close a sale by calling one of our potential customer’s CEO. I also had to terminate one of our sales people because although a great guy, he just wasn’t brining in the business. That was a hard conversation; he’s my sisters’ cousin, and the holidays may be a little touch and go for us at Aunt Jeannie’s. I’ve also changed our HR policy to include a little more vacation time since I do know that we all (myself included) could use a little more time off. I also managed to give a presentation today at the Rotary Club on how technology is failing the “graying” population. It was good—they loved me. I didn’t get a chance to return my phone call to my son in college, but I’ll do that tonight on my way home. Shoot, I just remembered, I have to get to Business After Hours as I promised to meet a potential client there so we could discuss some ways we may do some co—marketing…..shoot….gotta run!

Does that day sound like yours?
A small business owner has many people touch points throughout the day as well as various conversations about the business, the customer, the product, and the finances. When does an owner have a chance to really talk about what’s on his mind? Where does she find comrades and community? Who do they tell that, even with their dying optimism, they’re a little frightened?

Usually significant others are getting a bit tired with the constant barrage of questions and conversations during dinner. There’s always the best friend who’s interested but just doesn’t get it anymore since he’s a school teacher and all this business talk just makes him nuts, or at a minimum, very entertained. Sometimes we even discuss our business ownership plights with uninterested parties like hair stylists, grocery store clerks, and gas station attendants.

Before it gets to a level of desperation, an owner/CEO type has a few options that may help fill that need for community. As you remember from Management 101, Maslow indicates that our first need is basic safety and food, and our second need is to have a sense of community and belonging. If you’re yearning to connect with other like CEOs and business owners, you’re normal and most likely not alone.

Here are some ways to help you create a solid community that energizes, supports, and ultimately helps you become a stronger leader.

Find Your Coach
First, you could get an executive coach. This person’s job is to help you discuss those questions of importance that you are not ready to divulge to the team. This person can also help you discuss business opportunities, leadership challenges, and team and organizational growth. This person also might just be there to discuss the color of the furniture, if that’s what’s draining your thought reserves. Entrepreneurs have a weird sense of conversation needs. It’s proven. (Or at least I think it is as that’s been with my experiences with entrepreneurs.)

When selecting an executive coach, rule number one is to stay clear of someone who actually refers to themselves as an executive coach. You’re not looking for the traditional coach who will sit and ask you the pre-packaged set of questions of “what are your strengths?”, “what is your vision?” and so on. You can figure those out on your own. What you’re looking for is someone whom you connect with and who is deeply interested and vested in your success.

Most quality executive coaches or trusted advisors come from word-of-mouth recommendations. It has to be someone who your style connects with. It also has to be someone you trust. Deep, deep trust will develop over time, but you should have a good gut feeling on this person right from the start. If you don’t, don’t invest your time, heart, and energy into this relationship. This is intended to be a very intimate, safe place to share. It cannot be fraught with style issues, connection issues or trust issues.

The best way to enter into this relationship is to give it a try for an hourly fee. If it works, you’re almost always better off paying a monthly fee and having the person available more frequently. It is common to meet with him/her once or twice a month. Too much can get in the way of your business and can be too hard to digest. You want to fully reap the benefits of the coaching. You also need time in between conversations to fully appreciate the insights, feedback, and coaching. If you go longer than a month, you often find yourself spending more time on sustaining the relationship than actually doing the hard coaching that needs to be done.

Gather your Event Buddies
Secondly, another method to fulfill your community needs as a business owner is to sponsor an informal get together with other colleagues you have enjoyed meeting at conferences, trade shows, community events, and so on. If you wish, they can all be from the same industry. The benefit of doing so is that there is a shared interest and understanding of the challenges the industry and consequently the business owners face. There is a shared “secret” among this group, a special language they are comfortable with and all use.

There are also benefits in having the group be from different backgrounds and industries. The conversation will have a variety of perspectives to draw upon. The learning will become more creative as there will be similar and different challenges.
As the host, it can be a weight off your shoulders to hire an outside facilitator or meeting planner. This allows you to concentrate on being a part of the group rather than organizing and planning the experience.

Get Away
Thirdly, it is always been my experience that deep, long dialogues over a weekend period at a retreat-type setting help cultivate connection, learning, and community. This is not the weekend conference. This is the weekend get-a-way that is layered with thought provoking questions, fun, and explosive dialogues. They rarely have a packed or strict agenda and often leave enough white space so the conversations can take the shape that the audience needs them to take.

If you’ve ever been away in a “think tank” experience, you understand its unordered intensity and sustainability of content and relationships. All this means is that people get to know each other faster, and they also get to know themselves better at a rapid fire pace. It’s not a kumbaya experience at all; it’s one filled with moment after moment of business and personal “ahas.”

There’s no reason for “I ain’t got nobody” other than the courage it takes to reach out and sponsor an event or attend one when invited. Communities form gradually and intentionally. They’re magical, but they don’t just magically happen.

About the Author

You’re Going to Have Fun or ELSE!

Editor — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:38:00 GMT

Natural ways to create a positive culture
By Tracy Faleide

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I used to be a lifeguard, which in my opinion, is the greatest job in the world. Where else could I get paid to get a tan, be in excellent shape from hours of lap-swimming, and twirl a whistle chain with my toes? Another great perk was I became invisible the moment I climbed into the lifeguard chair. I always knew which 13-year-old girl had a crush on which 13-year-old boy. I also got to observe parenting techniques while on watch in the baby pool. One cloudy, chilly day, the high school football coach brought his youngest son to swim. The kid was so cold his lips were blue. His father was determined they get their money’s worth. Exasperated, he barked “you’re going to get in that pool and have fun or ELSE!” I’ll never forget the look on that poor kid’s face as he stood in the water shivering.

Years later, I found myself sympathizing with that kid again as I waited in line for my turn to be blind-folded and spun around until I nearly puked. You guessed it—I was at a team-building event, wishing I were anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not altogether denouncing the use of experiential learning devices or fun and games to encourage team-building. There are times and places where these activities are useful and effective. I’m simply suggesting there are many other natural, painless, and nearly free ways of supporting your culture-enhancement goals.

First, think about what you need. What’s the feel in your organization? Are people frazzled and stressed? Do people see each other frequently, or is everyone mostly on the road? Be sure to check in with a variety of team members to confirm your assessment. Leaders often project their feelings onto their teams and assume that if they’re stressed, everyone is. This can lead to situations like a team of people finding themselves on a bus to a ropes course not knowing if they’re being rewarded or punished.

In my experience, the simplest, most effective device for encouraging people to relax, connect, and share ideas is to make it easy for them to hang out and talk in a comfortable environment. Do you have an open area in your office where people can naturally congregate? Do you encourage impromptu discussions about current events or new ideas? Sometimes we get so caught up in being busy that we miss opportunities right in front of our faces. Allowing some breathing room for camaraderie and idea sharing sparks curiosity and creativity, and it bolsters both fun and productivity.

Another effective way to relieve stress and create a positive vibe is implementing silly cues to mark certain events or milestones. For example, when the Great Plains product development team was working crazy hours to release Dynamics, we used a stuffed animal (I think it was a Holstein cow) to indicate a code build was happening. A cow bell would ring out, and whoever was managing the build would put the stuffed cow on his/her monitor or sometimes his/her head. We’d all run around and cheer, even at three in the morning. When I was on the web site team, an E-mail that played a lick from “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats signaled a new site was being compiled, and we deserved a break from testing for a few moments. On the Customer and Partner Experience team, we balanced the amount of bad news we heard by “ringing the bell” every time we heard something positive, just like a bar staff does when they get a good tip. (After lifeguarding, I landed the second best job in the world—bartending!)

The bottom line is you don’t need to lie on the floor with your head on your neighbor’s stomach to have fun at work. (If you haven’t had to suffer through this one, count yourself lucky. All I remember is my stomach rumbling loudly over some questionable Chinese food at lunch, and it was quite embarrassing!) Encouraging comfortable, thought-provoking conversation and silly stress relievers will go a long way toward creating a positive environment within your team. It’ll also help you stay tuned to the mood of your organization. There will be times when you need some “structured fun,” maybe to boost your innovation or problem-solving skills or help a new team gel. Starting with a group who is already comfortable hanging out, having fun, and working hard together puts you ahead of the game. And it helps you avoid inadvertently causing fear and loathing of blindfolds amongst your team. Now, start having fun, or I’m coming to find you!

About the Author

Tracy Faleide has twenty years of experience in communications, project and team management, strategy development and planning process, team-building, performance and career coaching and results-based execution. She is a novelist, freelance writer, professional coach and business consultant. Common threads across these focus areas include finding and telling stories of courage through transition, helping establish confidence of purpose and seeing things differently. Prior to going out on her own, she held several team and strategy leadership roles at Great Plains Software and Microsoft. In her most recent positions at Microsoft, she was responsible for Business Solutions' strategy development and planning processes and for setting and delivering on worldwide customer and partner experience and satisfaction strategies. Tracy has a B.S. degree in Mass Communications and Public Relations from Minnesota State University Moorhead. She and her husband, Dan, live in and lovingly renovate two old homes-one a 1907 four-square in Fargo, North Dakota; and the other a cottage on Lake Lizzie near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.

Identity Theft: Now It's Your Problem

Editor — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:54:00 GMT

By Judith M. Collins, Ph.D.

Identity theft has become a corporate challenge, but you can protect your data and your business.

Identity theft is growing, and with the increasing potential for serious consequences, business executives need to have this threat on their radar screens.

Bear in mind that a single person rarely perpetrates identity theft. Our research shows that about 60 percent of identity thieves operate in rings. A single person may steal the information, but the data is then distributed to others. What's more, identity theft is seldom a single incident. The theft itself is the first crime, but the fraudulent use of the identity may take place again and again before the crime is discovered.

Here’s another reason to pay more attention to identity theft. If you assume that identity theft won't make your customers think twice about doing business with you, consider this: One of the first questions victims ask when they contact us is whether they should change banks or credit-card companies or retailers. (We tell them no.)

As the number of consumers who do business electronically continues to grow, we hear more people say that they no longer shop or bank online because they're afraid of having their identity stolen.

What to Do
Forget about the notion that there's nothing you can do about identity theft. By taking a few practical steps, you can go a long way toward circumventing this pernicious crime.

Two key reasons for the burgeoning rate of identity theft are ignorance and apathy. We hear about high-tech tricks such as phishing and low-tech approaches such as dumpster diving and assume that most identity theft occurs one consumer at a time. But our research shows that up to 70 percent of identity theft occurs within companies.

What's more, we're engaging in business practices that vastly increase the risk of insiders stealing identities. As we conduct a greater portion of our business electronically and outsource potentially millions of jobs to other countries, we become increasingly vulnerable to misuse of sensitive information.

The solution is twofold. It’s not enough to invest in the appropriate level of IT security. It takes a combination of technology and procedures to prevent identity theft by dishonest employees or vendors—the most likely perpetrators. Even when the crime is committed by outside hackers, it's usually in collaboration with insiders.

It’s important to develop and implement policies that will result in safe business practices and an honest corporate culture.

That starts with recruitment. Many perpetrators of identity theft are temps who take jobs specifically for the purpose of stealing data.

Here’s a typical case: Several years ago, a leading carmaker hired a temporary worker in an entry-level data-management position. On the last day of her assignment, she printed the names of numerous company executives—along with their addresses, Social Security numbers and salaries—and took them with her.

Sometimes a background check isn’t enough. A few years ago, a major financial services provider contracted with a risk management firm to vet a job candidate who would handle sensitive information, including the investment accounts of millions of employees. Two months later, the employee stole thousands of names and other information. Afterward, the company learned that in 2002 she had been convicted of embezzlement—even though she had passed a background check.

Such workers may have even passed a criminal-record check. Many companies check backgrounds by culling records in known states of residence. But identity thieves tend to move around a lot. What's more, data brokers often don't update their information. I have checked the names of known perpetrators against criminal records databases, and they have come up clean, too.

Tip List
There are other strategies to prevent identity theft within an organization. Here is a list of tips based on identity-theft incidents we’ve investigated:

Employees with sensitive data on their machines should lock their computers before leaving their desks
Move printers to inner offices and away from corridors
Move fax machines to inner offices
Retrieve faxes when received
Employees should make sure documents are shredded before leaving the shedder
Lock filing cabinets
Do not leave sensitive identification information, such as Social Security numbers, in voicemails
Change passwords often

Although thorough background checks and other measures are expensive and long term, the cost of preventing identity theft is far less than the cost of recovering from it. And a strong anti-identity-theft program will empower customers as well as employees.

Therefore, identity protection needs to become part of your budgeting process and integral to how you do business. That's because identity theft is a crime whose impact can be felt far into your organization's future.

About the Author

Judith Collins has seen a lot of identity theft, and she expects to see a lot more. As director of the Identity Theft Crime and Research Lab at Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice, she consults regularly with organizations that have experienced security breaches. Her new book, Preventing Identity Theft in Your Business, offers a practical guide for protecting businesses, their customers and their employees.